Home favourite Milos Raonic showed no signs of a hangover after Wimbledon as he made his return in his hometown of Toronto at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday, blowing past Yen Hsun-Lu in straight sets in front of an electric crowd at the Aviva Centre. Raonic, the fourth seed this year in Toronto, was his usual, hard-serving self, saving the lone break point he faced in the 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Raonic cruises through opener
The Canadian got off to a flying start, holding his first two service games to love and cracking a 148 MPH serve in the opening game. Raonic also put Lu under pressure quickly, pushing the Taiwanese to 30 in his first game and deuce in the second. The third time would be the charm, as Lu would have a disastrous service game, hitting four consecutive unforced errors to gift an early break to Raonic.
While Lu started to score the occasional point on the Raonic, he was unable to put any real pressure on the Canadians serve. To make matters worse for the Taiwanese, Raonic putting some serious heat on his serves, topping out a 152 MPH in the eighth game. Serving to stay in the set at 3-5, Lu would struggle again, falling behind 0-40, triple set point. Raonic would convert his second break point to wrap up the opening set.
More big serving sends Raonic through
Raonic had a chance to take a stranglehold on the match in the fourth game of the second set when he raced ahead 15-40. On this occasion, Lu was up to the task, saving the first break point with a textbook serve-and-volley and the second with an ace. The missed opportunity almost came back to haunt Raonic in the following game, when some sloppy play saw him miss a game point and then face his first break point of the match at 40-AD. But the Canadian rallied, saved the break point and held for a 3-2 lead.
This time, it was Lu who was left to rue the missed opportunity as, in a near mirror image of his third service game in the opening set, the Taiwanese committed three straight unforced errors to falling behind triple break point. This time, he saved the first, only for his shot to catch a net cord and sit up for Raonic to put away with a forehand winner to seal the break. That would be all Raonic would need, as he held his final two service games, closing out the match in an hour and five minutes with an unreturnable serve.
By the numbers
It was a typical serving performance for the powerful Canadian, as he won 80 percent of his first serve points and 71 percent of his second serves, along with hitting a mere eight aces. He also saved the lone break point he faced while converting three of his seven opportunities. Lu’s serve was under attack in almost every service game and he only managed to win 60 percent of his first serve points and 42 percent of his second serves.
Raonic will take on qualifier Jared Donaldson in the third round.